Negroponte�s specialty, while ambassador to Honduras under Reagan (1981- 1985) was to ensure that any resistance to US hegemony in Nicaragua would be utterly crushed. The ambassador carried out his duties with considerable success.

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During the Reagan administration, and while Negroponte was ambassador to the country, �Contra� militias were trained in Honduras. The Contras had hitherto made relatively small attacks across the border into Nicaragua until in 1982 thousands of marines arrived with up to 200 military advisers � airstrips were built, arms supplied and radar stations erected, all courtesy of the US taxpayer.

The Contras were trained in some of the most gruesome guerrilla war techniques. Some were trained by military officers from Argentina�s dirty war who knew nothing about the jungle but plenty about torture and execution. Others were trained in Florida and California while many others, like Honduras� military dictator, General Gustavo Alvarez Mart�nez, were educated in torture techniques, execution and combat at the School of the Americas in Fort Benning, Georgia. While it was purported by Reagan that the Contras were fighting the evil scourge of communism, referring to them as �freedom fighters,� the Contras raped, tortured and terrorised the civilian population throughout the subsequent decade, leaving the destroying the civilian infrastructure, leaving tens of thousands dead and many more displaced.

"What an outrage!" said

Bertha Oliva, the co-ordinator of the

Committee for Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras. "The United States has invented a position to reward someone who was a dangerous person."

The new US intelligence chief has professed ignorance of what was going on around him in his post as ambassador to Honduras.

During 2001 confirmation hearings for his UN ambassadorship - an appointment that was delayed for six months because of the controversy - Negroponte testified that he did not believe death squads were operating in Honduras.

However, a 1993 Honduran Government human rights report said a US-trained army battalion abducted and killed Government opponents during Negroponte's time in Honduras.

"It was obvious that he knew what was happening," said

Leo Valladeres, a law professor in Honduras who authored the report. "They used outlaw methods to kill ... and it is absolutely impossible to believe that a diplomatic mission such as that of the United States was unaware of the situation faced by Honduras and Central America."

Declassified documents on the

Iran-Contra scandal also show Negroponte was involved in requesting more guns for the

Contras - "the role that normally would be reserved for the (CIA) station chief", said Peter Kornbluh, a senior analyst at the National Security Archives in Washington and co-author of the book The Iran-Contra Scandal: The Declassified History.

The documents also showed that Negroponte helped clear the way for a secret agreement under which the United States would provide more CIA money to Honduran army generals, as well as additional military and economic aid to the country, in exchange for the country's agreement to allow the Contras to continue operating on Honduran soil, Kornbluh said.

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"He is faithful to Bush's excessive and ultra-right policy in Iraq and other parts of the world," he said.

Kornbluh said that, ironically, the controversy surrounding Negroponte's past helps qualify him for the job.

"Someone who is a career diplomat... on paper doesn't seem to have the intelligence background needed," he said. "The fact that he certainly departed from his diplomatic role and was involved in paramilitary operations against Nicaragua... means he has had a relationship with covert operations in the past."